Vienna underground tram

Vienna underground tram
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	650 V  =
Top speed:	50 km / h
Legend Belt Ustrab 6 18 : from Westbahnhof 62 : from Meidling station Oak Street Matzleinsdorfer Platz Matzleinsdorfer Platz junction Matzleinsdorfer Platz 1 6 : to Knöllgasse Kliebergasse Junction Kliebergasse Kliebergasse Laurenzgasse 1 62 : to Kärntner Ring, Opera Blechturmgasse O : from Quellenplatz Central Station O 18 : to Quartier Belvedere Double line (until 1980, since then ) E 2 G 2 H 2 : Praterstern , Radetzkystraße, Prater (Hauptallee) Friedrich Schmidt-Platz today town hall Lerchenfelder Strasse closed in 2003 Burggasse today Volkstheater Mariahilfer Strasse today is the Museum Quarter E 2 G 2 H 2 : Gersthof (Herbeckstrasse) , Hohe Warte , Hernals

The underground tram (sometimes abbreviated USTRAB or USTRABA ) refers to sections of the Viennese tram that were or are to be run as Unterpflaster trams ( double line ) or ( southern belt ). Today it mainly refers to the section in the area of ​​the southern belt, which went into operation on January 11, 1969.

Track equipment

In contrast to the grooved rails usually used for trams, the underground tram was equipped with Vignole rails . The switches and narrow bends at the branch points, on the other hand, are equipped with grooved rails and flat grooved frogs. On each side, offset from one another, fluorescent tubes are attached every 20 meters. These help the driver to estimate distances, as there is a light every ten meters.

Signal system 1, during a counting chain correction, at Matzleinsdorfer Platz

The underground tram does not drive on sight, but with signaling. So-called move-up signals ( block signals ) with two green and two yellow light-emitting diodes arranged one below the other are used, which show the driver the status of the next two track sections. Shortly before the stations, the distance between the individual move-up signals is shorter in order to allow faster entry into the station. The track vacancy is reported by track circuits . If the following two sections are free, both green lanterns light up, the driver can drive at the locally permitted maximum speed. If the first section is free and the next but one is occupied, a green and a yellow lamp will light up and the speed must be reduced to 30 km / h. But if the first section is occupied, both yellow lamps light up regardless of the status of the next but one section. This means that you can continue driving at 15 km / h. Between the stations Kliebergasse and Laurenzgasse there is the only distant signal of the underground tram in the direction of the opera, because the following signal to move up is in a tight right-hand curve and the signal is not visible.

An extended system is used at the Matzleinsdorfer Platz and Kliebergasse junctions . As soon as a train enters the station, the desired direction is sent to the system, as confirmation a white arrow appears in the corresponding direction on the red signal. It is now automatically checked whether the track sections to be traveled are free. If this is the case, the points are set and electrically secured, then the signal goes into the driving position and the driver is allowed to continue driving. Because of the problematic insulating properties of the superstructure in the points and crossings made of grooved rail material, the branch points are equipped with axle counters . If two trains are in a branch station at the same time, preference is given to the train that has been in the station for a long time. Since this system is very susceptible to failure, shortly after the opening of the underground tram, the typical Viennese tramway signals with four white lamps were installed as a fall-back level, which are comparable to an intersection on the surface, but do not work as efficiently and quickly.

Line of two

Friedrich Schmidt-Platz stop (today U2 Rathaus), 1973

Conversion of the double line to the U2, 1980

The first longer underground tram route was built in the 1960s after the city government abandoned the Viennese Alwegbahn plans , but before the fundamental decision to build the underground. The lowering of the tram along the so-called double line between the Secession building and Landesgerichtsstrasse north of Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz was put into operation on October 8, 1966. This route has been used by the U2 underground line since September 1980 .

Since 1907, in addition to the lines marked with letters across the ring ("Ringlinien"), there have also been tram lines in Vienna, also marked with letters, but also with the index 2 on the "freight road" running parallel to the ring (the alternative route for truck traffic) . Until the late 1970s, the three tram lines E 2 ( Praterstern - Gersthof , Herbeckstraße), G 2 (Radetzkystraße - Hohe Warte ) and H 2 ( Prater Hauptallee - Hernals ) ran on this section of the route . These were relocated underground because of the increasing prevalence of motorized individual traffic on the “two-way line”. It was hoped that moving the tram just below street level in the traffic-sensitive zones would provide a quicker and cheaper solution to traffic problems than building an entire subway network. The tram could emerge from the tunnel at the end points of the underground tram route, branch onto the routes to the outskirts and use the usual return loops there. The lines crossing between the tunnel portals, to which switch connections had previously existed, were no longer connected to the two-way line.

This underground tram tunnel was 1.8 km long and had four underground stations:

• Mariahilfer Strasse , today operated as the Museumsquartier underground station , called Babenbergerstrasse from 1991 to 2000
• Burggasse , today the Volkstheater underground station and junction with the U3 underground line
• Lerchenfelderstraße later subway station Lerchenfelderstraße , on 27 September 2003 because of the short distance to the station Volkstheater abandoned
• Friedrich Schmidt-Platz , today Rathaus metro station ; north of this station was the entrance and exit of the tunnel in the Landesgerichtsstraße , and the tram lines branched out to the outskirts at the intersection with Alser Straße and Universitätsstraße.

In 1980, after appropriate preparatory work, the existing underground tram could be converted into an underground line within two summer months, during which the tram traffic was stopped. To this end, the route was expanded in the south from the Secession to the emerging Karlsplatz subway junction (U1 since 1978, U4 since 1978 and 1980) and in the north from Landesgerichtsstrasse at Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz via the Schottentor junction to Schottenring (U4 ) extended. The platforms were raised, the architecture of the underground tram stations was largely retained. Since the opening of the U2 on August 30, 1980, the route has been used by the subway.

belt

In the 1960s, the underground tram concept was also implemented on the southern belt , which is heavily used by cars and trucks . The tram tunnels and stations on this route are still in operation today. They have the advantage that branches and crossings of the lines can be carried out underground at the same level, which is not usual for the underground in Vienna for safety reasons.

The first section, a short underpass of the Südtiroler Platz in the course of the belt near the Südbahnhof , which was in operation until 2009 , was opened on May 7, 1959. The stop is in connection with the also underground S-Bahn station Hauptbahnhof .

Until the opening on January 11, 1969, the tracks along the belt from Südtiroler Platz to Eichenstrasse as well as in Wiedner Hauptstrasse and Kliebergasse were laid underground, a total of 3.4 kilometers in length. In the course of this construction work, the Florianikirche was demolished from August 1965 . It was even considered to run the underground tram in this area as the U5 line from the Gumpendorfer Straße station to St. Marx , but this was never followed seriously. The U5 line presented in 2016 is not related to this.

In the course of the construction of the station on Matzleinsdorfer Platz in the 5th district, Margareten , Vienna's first "rolling carpet", a moving walkway to accelerate underground pedestrian traffic and to make long walks easier for older people, was also opened.

The underground tram route under the Gürtel comprises a total of six underground stations and is served by four tram lines and the Vienna – Baden local railway . Line 18 runs the longest section of the underground tram tunnel, line 6 the shortest.

The underground tram stations, dating back to the 1960s, were extensively refurbished from autumn 2009 with funds from the economic stimulus package for a total of eleven million euros, whereby the station design was to be aligned as closely as possible with that of the Vienna underground stations.

On December 9, 2012, the Südtiroler Platz stop was renamed the Hauptbahnhof. During the renovation of this station, unlike the other stations of the Gürtel underground tram, white wall paneling was installed, as well as (in a different position) a large mural (an oblique view of Vienna) from the original equipment from 1959.

Stations of the underground tram on the Gürtel:

Lines	Abbr.	station	Transfer options (S-Bahn, U-Bahn)	Sights and important points	district	opened
6 18 62	EGG	Oak Street		Metzleinstaler Hof , Reumannhof	5	11th January 1969
1 6 18 62	MP	Matzleinsdorfer Platz	R.	Evangelical cemetery , Matzleinsdorfer high-rise	5	11th January 1969
1 18 62	KL	Kliebergasse		Waldmüllerpark	5	11th January 1969
1 62	LG	Laurenzgasse		Florianikirche Scala theater	5	11th January 1969
18th	BL	Blechturmgasse			4 , 5	11th January 1969
18th	SL	Central Station	R.	South-Tirol place	4th	May 7, 1959

The following lines drive the underground tram tunnel on the Gürtel:

line	course	Route in the tunnel
1	Stefan-Fadinger-Platz - Prater Hauptallee	Matzleinsdorfer Platz S - Laurenzgasse
6th	Burggasse-Stadthalle U - Geiereckstraße	Eichenstrasse - Matzleinsdorfer Platz S.
18th	Burggasse-Stadthalle U - Schlachthausgasse U	Eichenstrasse - Central Station SU
62	Kärntner Ring , Oper - Lainz , Wolkersbergenstrasse	Laurenzgasse - Eichenstrasse
WLB ( Badner Bahn )	Kärntner Ring , Opera - Baden , Josefsplatz	Laurenzgasse - Eichenstrasse

Station spacing

From	To	length
Oak Street	Matzleinsdorfer Platz	653 meters
Matzleinsdorfer Platz	Kliebergasse	458 meters
Kliebergasse	Blechturmgasse	384 meters
Blechturmgasse	Central Station	445 meters
Kliebergasse	Laurenzgasse	433 meters

• 

  Train the Badnerbahn (WLB) in the stop Eichenstraße

• 

  Renovated Laurenzgasse station

• 

  Newly designed exit to the Kliebergasse stop

• 

  Network of the Ustrab

• 

  Line 18 train in the underground tram in the former Südtiroler Platz stop, now the main train station

• 

  Exit the tunnel at Eichenstrasse or Flurschützstrasse

Further underground sections

In 1961 an underground loop system was built at Schottentor for lines 37, 38, 39 (until August 1970), 40 (from summer 1980), 41 and 42; above it is the loop of lines 43 and 44 at street level. Since 1980, this terminus of seven tram lines has been connected to the newly built Schottentor underground station (U2).

The underground tram station is popularly called Jonas-Reindl because of its circular, recessed, but open in the middle , after the Austrian expression "Reindl" for casserole and the Viennese mayor Franz Jonas , during his tenure (1951–1965) most U -Tram projects were planned and built. During the construction of the underground turning loop, the columns were arranged in such a way that they do not stand in the way of any further construction in the direction of the city center. However, due to the construction of the underground lines U1 and U3 , this extension was not pursued any further.

The station Archduke Karl Strasse in the Danube town is located on the line 25 in an underpass, under the stop Wien Erzherzog-Karl-Straße the Eastern Railway ( Laa Eastern Railway and Marchegg branch ) with S-Bahn and the Southeast tangent Vienna highway passes . This underground stop, which is also used by buses, was opened in 1971 as part of the extension of line 26. Due to the fact that there are lanes on both sides of the tram station, no direct stairs to the ÖBB platforms could be built. As a replacement, there is a lift that leads directly to the central platform 1/2 and the central platform 3/4, and stairs that lead to the access to the platforms to the west and east of the underpass.

• 

  Jonasreindl from above

• 

  Platform in the Schottentor station

• 

  Erzherzog-Karl-Strasse

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien , Volume 5. Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 978-3-218-00547-0 , p. 495.
• Alfred Prokesch: Requiem for a Church. How Vienna was demolished into a cosmopolitan city - and an analysis of the background. In: Die Zeit , year 1965, issue 40, October 1, 1965. ( Full text in Zeit online. )
• Vienna's Ustraba has its premiere today. In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 8, 1966, p. 6 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
• Alois Brunnthaler: Tunnel premiere: Vienna enthusiastic about Ustraba. In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 9, 1966, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized). , and p. 3: Marek: Save your nerves, take the subway.
• Today 9 o'clock: Belt tunnel finished. Festival in Vienna's largest underground transport structure, Matzleinsdorfer Platz. In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 11, 1969, p. 5 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).

footnote

1. ↑ On this, quote: “… In Vienna there is not a trace of a traffic concept that would justify this demolition [the chimney sweep church ], that would justify any demolition. [...] now, five minutes to twelve, the municipal administration, pushed into a corner by the political opposition, sees its escape route in the fixed idea of ​​an underground tram - the 'Ustraba' that is rejected by all megacities in Europe and overseas as the day before yesterday and which has already got itself a tangible disgrace at the Munich traffic exhibition. […] The old church [St. Florian], if you had planned a real subway embedded in a large system network, it is still questionable whether a single subway line can adequately serve a loosened suburban area of ​​30,000 inhabitants. […] Vienna has neither city motorway nor subway planning, which led the city planner at the time to the historical words in the open municipal council: 'I will not plan an subway if the majority of the house does not want it.' Whereby this subway taboo, as I said, only goes back to the fact that the City Hall opposition has always regarded the subway as a hobbyhorse and a true politician is not allowed to do what the opponent demands. So it is that in Vienna City Hall there is now acute Ustraba planning technology and the chimney sweep church came under the wheels. "

Web links

Commons : USTRAB Vienna  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Horst Prillinger: The U-Tram (1959–1969). In: The Vienna U-Bahn, February 8, 2005.
• Thomas Stadler: Ustrab routes: Vienna's sub-paved trams. In: Vienna Underground.
• Steve Stipsits: History of the U-STRAB (Unterpflasterstrassenbahn). In: public-transport.at, February 15, 2015.
• Ustrab. In: Straßenbahnjournal-Wiki, April 5, 2012.
• Clemens Beyer, Gerald Svetelsky (Ed.): Unterpflasterstrassenbahn- Lichtsignale . In: The Tram Journal.
• Ludwig Ekl: A bécsi "2-es" földalatti villamos (Ustraba) rövid története. (Hungarian; with maps and historical photos of the two-line USTRAB) In: Trams in Hungary ... and much more, 2005, updated 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alois Brunnenthaler: At minus 5 degrees: Gürteltunnel was a fairground . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 12, 1969, p. 5 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ A bécsi "2-es" földalatti villamos (Ustraba) rövid története. Retrieved February 2, 2020 (Hungarian). 
3. ↑ Line U2 Seestadt - Karlsplatz. Retrieved February 2, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Brauner: 11 million euros for the sub-paving tram. Press and Information Service of the City of Vienna, March 12, 2009, accessed on February 2, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Underground BIM stations are being renovated. ORF Vienna, April 17, 2009, accessed on February 2, 2020 . 
6. ^ Directory of domestic / federal German - Austrian German. Retrieved February 2, 2020 . 
7. ↑ History of the U-STRAB (Unterpflasterbahn tram). Retrieved February 2, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Line 26. Accessed February 2, 2020 .